


Our Dreams Hold On

by EndlessRain



Series: Go Out and See What You Can Find [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Epilogue, M/M, Road Trip, Sequel, Timestamp, dumb boys dicking around
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 06:59:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1848763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EndlessRain/pseuds/EndlessRain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel has quit his job, left the only home he's ever known, and set out on the open road in search for his father. Deciding at the last minute to bring his boyfriend, the endless sunny roads don't seem as bad. </p><p>Sequel to You Can Stretch Right Up and Touch the Sky</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Dreams Hold On

**Author's Note:**

> Title from The Beach Boys' "Summer's Gone"

_September_

“I’m not really sure what I’m doing,” Castiel admitted.

“Yeah, I knew that when we left, remember?” Dean shrugged. “I don’t care, dude. I just like being here with you.”

He slid a hand off of the wheel and squeezed Cas’s thigh. He left his hand there when he was done and the warmth of his hand comforted Cas. 

If he was being honest with himself, this entire ordeal made him anxious. Well, everything made him anxious, but this especially. He had never been away from home for so long, and the long stretches of road only reminded him of how far away he was. 

Dean, took to the road like a fish to water. He loved blasting his music with the windows rolled down, throwing an easy grin in Cas’s direction every few tracks. 

Led Zeppelin and AC/DC and Metallica wailed out of the Impala’s speakers while the long black car zoomed over winding backroads and endless highways. Sometimes, they would spend hours and hours just talking to each other. Sometimes they spent the entire day in perfect silence. It was the best handful of weeks in Castiel’s entire life.

After they left Kripke, they decided to circle around the midwest for a while before heading to California, where Cas knew that some family friends lived. 

Castiel refused to let Dean pay for anything. The money that he had saved up for the road trip when he thought it was just going to be himself was suddenly being split between two people, but he had enough that it would last them a while. Worst case scenario, they stop in a small down somewhere and do a few odd jobs for cash. 

They stopped at placeless hotels each night, crashing in their own separate beds and rising early in the morning to leave again. They didn’t have an exact agenda; they were wandering around aimlessly, but they still kept to a strict unspoken schedule. 

He didn’t ask about the separate beds, and he wasn’t sure if Dean throwing an arm over his shoulder and asking for two queens for him and his “buddy”, was the result of his respect for Cas’s space, his own modesty, or his internalized homophobia. He decided that when Dean was ready for that, he’d clue Cas in. 

“Tell me something, Cas,” Dean said one day. 

“What about?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, anything. I want to know more about you. Who was the first guy you ever kissed?”

Cas smiled, and ducked his head. “Balthazar.”

Dean’s head jerked in his direction. “What?!”

He shrugged. “We were young. I think I might have been fifteen or sixteen.”

Dean sputtered. “I- but he’s…? You said he was…?” he waved his hands around dramatically, as if he was feeling the air for the right word. Castiel was worried that he was going to crash in Impala. 

“Straight, yes. Well, don’t be jealous, I never said that he kissed me back.” Cas glanced at Dean, who was still staring at him. “Please keep your eyes on the road,” he said.

Reluctantly, Dean turned back to the empty road and shook his head, laughing. “Shit. I knew it.”

Castiel liked surprising Dean, so he decided to add, “The first person that ever kissed _me_ was Meg.”

Dean almost swerved off the road. 

“What?!”

Castiel shrugged. It wasn’t a big deal to him, anymore. “We were pretty young.”

“Did she know that you-? That you’re-?”

Castiel chuckled. “Well, I think she knows _now_. If my string of straight men I’ve had over the years weren’t a big enough hint, the rumors she helped spread about you and I, was. I never formally came out to anyone, I just started being with men. It’s not that I didn’t care about her and I think she knows that. We have a pretty close relationship.”

“No way, really? No big heartfelt, ‘hey, I’m into dudes’?” 

“Not really. Sexuality has never really been that important to me. I’m not even really sure if I would classify myself as 100% homosexual. I just know that when I was thirteen I was in love with Meg, and now at twenty-three I am in love with Dean Winchester.” 

Dean grinned at him dopily. “You sap.”

The song playing lightly in the background eased into the next track, and Dean straightened in excitement. “Oh! This one is the best, I swear.” He removed his hand from Castiel’s thigh to crank up the volume. 

Castiel shook his head. Dean said that about every song. 

His travelling companion threw his head back and crowed the words out, not even attempting to sound good. 

_“The sea was red and the sky was grey, wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today…”_

Castiel knew well enough at this point that they were listening to Led Zeppelin, but not enough to place the song title. He closed his eyes, and listened to the sound of Dean competing against Robert Plant for lead vocals. He liked hearing Dean like this. He wasn’t performing, like he did for the Fourth of July talent show. Here, he was just being Dean. 

The song ended with an easy guitar and Dean chuckled as he turned the dial back down. “Man, I love that song.”

There was something really beautiful about watching someone being passionate about something they cared about. 

“And hey, we’re going to California, too,” Dean added. 

“Pardon?”

“‘S the name of the song. Going to California. That’s still where you want to go, right?”

Cas nodded. “I’m pretty sure I still have family there. Perhaps my father is with them.”

“California’s a pretty big place.”

“Yes, it is. I still remember how to get there, though.”

“Thought you’d never left camp before.”

Castiel made a face. “I’ve left Kripke before. Just never for an extended amount of time like this. I would have meandered over to California, should I have gone alone for the trip.”

Dean made a thoughtful noise. 

“It’s still cool that I’m coming with you, right? I know I kinda sprang it on you last minute.” He looked over at Castiel nervously. 

But Castiel wasn’t having any of Dean’s self-consciousness today. He leaned across the Impala, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Of course it is. I want to do this with you.”

 

Dean grinned. “Good. I’ll make sure to make a good impression for your old man, so he’ll let me take you to the prom.”

Castiel opened his mouth to tell Dean that he wasn’t aware that there was a prom, since they weren’t in school, but he realized that Dean was teasing him, and he smiled instead. 

Truth be told, Dean said a lot of things that confused Castiel, but he was finally starting to get to the point where he could speak Winchester. Well, maybe not speak it, but he could at least understand it. It was like he was back in French class in high school. He could certainly understand Madame when she gave instructions to the class, but the minute he was expected to respond _en français_ , he couldn’t do it. 

Despite always feeling like Dean was so much more than him, this summer had been the best summer of his life. From the moment that he caught Castiel’s corndog (not a euphemism) he had treated him like a human being, not like one of the invisible kitchen staff. Granted, he liked being invisible at Kripke. If he was invisible, he didn’t make attachments to the people around him. Each year, staff members and counselor’s came and left as the summers flew by, some returning, some not. It hurt to have his family fall apart every year, so it simply became easier to just close himself off to everyone. That way, when they stopped keeping in touch like they always did, he wouldn’t feel as bad. 

It’s what he expected to happen with Dean. Dean, who winked at him and invited him to go on walks with him and his campers. Dean, who gave up his summer so that his little brother could have one last shot at being a kid. Dean, who helped him do arguably one of the worst jobs at camp, just so that he could spend time with him. Dean, who said “I love you” first. No one ever said it first to Castiel. 

Dean, who was currently “no homo”ing him at every hotel they stayed at (Balthazar taught him that one). 

“Cas.”

Castiel turned. He had been staring out the window as his thoughts wandered. The sun was just starting to set, and Dean was pulling off the freeway. Good, it was starting to feel like they had been driving on that same road for a long time. 

“Are you cool with stopping for the night? We can go catch a movie or something.”

Castiel liked that idea. It was better than just stopping at a diner in a couple of more hours, before crawling into their beds. It would be like a date. 

They pulled off into an empty parking lot and Cas pulled out his phone to look for nearby theaters. Dean looked entirely scandalized. 

“Dude, what are you doing?”

“You wanted to go to the movies, right? I’m looking up times for movies and a theater. We don’t even know if this town has a theater we could go to.”

Dean snatched the phone out of his hand, opened the glove department in front of him, tossed it inside, and slammed it shut. “Hold on,” he said, twisting around and digging through the back seat. He pulled out a shoebox overflowing with maps and dug around some more until he finally produced one that he was satisfied with, and handed it to Cas proudly. 

Miraculously, it was a map of the town they were in. 

“How do you even have this?” Cas asked incredulously. 

“Sammy always liked to collect maps wherever we went,” Dean shrugged. “Actually, I think we used to live here for a while.”

“You _think?”_

Dean’s plastered-on grin faded. He couldn’t hide, not from Castiel. 

“It was for about a month. Around when I was fourteen. I remember it because this was the first map that Sammy decided to keep.”

A month. Dean lived in this tiny town for a _month_. There were some times that Cas didn’t even leave Kripke’s campus for that long. 

“There’s uh, there’s no movie theater, but there is a drive-in. The sun’s settin’, I bet we could leave now and get a pretty good parking spot.”

Castiel’s heart warmed. He pulled off into this tiny town because he remembered that there was a drive-in movie theater. Out of all the middle-of-nowhere’s that this man had been, he happened to remember this one and wanted to bring Dean there. 

They pulled up to the old drive-in and to Dean’s absolute dismay, it was closed. Indefinitely. 

“Damn it!” he cried, slamming his hands against the steering wheel. A big, wooden fence with an ominous sign warning about trespassers blocked their way into the drive-in. They sat in the front seat of the Impala, dumbfounded. 

“I can’t believe it’s closed!” 

“I don’t think drive-ins are very popular anymore, Dean,” Cas shrugged. “Why would you want to go to sit in your car when you can go inside a warm theater?”

Dean turned to him, gaping. “Why? Because it’s a fucking drive-in! It’s magical!”

“I’ve never been to one before,” Cas deadpanned. 

“Wait, seriously? Never? Then we gotta go!” 

Without another word, he climbed out of the car, and marched in front of the Impala to the wooden fence, chained shut. Cas watched from inside the car. The entire establishment looked like it was falling apart, and that was just on the outside.It must’ve been closed for years. What was he gonna do? 

Break in, apparently. With a grunt, Dean kicked his foot down against the rusted chain and broke it in pieces. He turned back to Cas, grinning his typical I Just Did Something Badass grin. 

Castiel rolled his eyes. 

Dean pushed open the old fence, dusted off his hands, and climbed back into the Impala. 

“We,” he said, gesturing between them, “are going on a date.”

He started up the car again, and rumbled into the empty lot. 

The drive-in consisted of a singular movie screen, littered with just as many holes as patches, drooping sadly at the other end of the lot like a tired sail. There were white posts across the dirt, where Castiel knew people were supposed to park based off the movies he had seen, and most of them were broken or molding away. It was clear why this place was condemned. 

Dean didn’t seem to care, he just pulled the Impala up to the screen and pulled her into park. Great, now Castiel was starting to think of the car as a “her”. 

“This place really got this bad in only four years?” Castiel asked. 

Dean shrugged. “Eh, it was kinda shitty when I lived here anyway. It probably closed right after we moved.”

He clapped his hands together. “Now, drive-ins are all apart of the summer experience. You gave me a pretty good summer at Kripke, now let me show you how I spend my summers, Winchester-style.” Dean slid next to Cas, tugging off his jacket. 

Castiel smirked. “Was this all just a plan to seduce me?”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Me? Never. I just wanted to show you the traditional American summer. Y’know, taking someone you like to the drive-in, buying them ridiculously expensive candy, sitting in the dark with them for over an hour before you finally lean in…”

Over the course of his little speech, Dean had moved in closer and placed a hand on Cas’s leg, leaned in, and just as Castiel opened his mouth for a kiss, Dean jerked back with an excited “oh!”

He threw open the car door and jumped out of the car, heading towards the trunk. Castiel swore to himself. Two weeks, and they hadn’t done anything more than light making out. It was getting ridiculous. 

Cas followed him out of the Impala, to where Dean was digging through his duffel bag. 

“Aha!” he said, presenting a movie to Castiel.

_“The Breakfast Club?”_

“Yeah! Let’s go see if that old projector works!” he jerked his head towards the shack in the middle of the field, where Castiel assumed the projector used to be. Emphasis on the “used to be”.

“Dean, that’s not going to work. Even if the projector’s still there, who knows if it’ll work?” Castiel followed Dean as he excitedly skipped across the dirt to the shack. 

“Just wait! You never know.”

He jiggled at the doorknob for a few seconds, shrugged when the door didn’t open, and kicked it down instead. Castiel stared. Where the hell did Dean learn how to kick down doors like he was in the FBI? Not everything can be learned from watching movies. 

Dean must have noticed Castiel’s staring because he looked back. “What? I told you, my dad’s a detective.”

Cas shook his head. The person he was in love with was fucking crazy.

They indeed found a projector, covered by a sheet and tucked away in a corner, and together they lifted it up onto the table in front of the window, where they assumed was meant for the projector to well, project. Unfortunately, it wasn’t equipped for DVDs, it was meant for actual movie reels. Castiel could have told you that before they even broke into the place.

Oh, they were breaking and entering. Other than that joint he shared with Gabriel his senior year, Castiel doesn’t think he’s ever broken the law before. This one seemed like a pretty big law. 

“Dean, maybe we should just go.”

But Dean wasn’t into that. He dug around the shack some more and found a box of old movie reels and held up one of them for evidence. “No, let’s watch a movie! It’ll be awesome.”

Castiel laughed and allowed Dean to pop in whatever movie that seemed like it was the least water damaged. He fiddled around with it for a while, but somehow managed to get it going. 

It was an old cartoon that came out maybe five or six years ago. Castiel felt like he had probably seen parts of it at camp while serving snacks during movie night, but had never actually sat down and watched it all the way through. The lightbulb for the projector was practically burnt out and they couldn’t figure out how to make sound work, but they shuffled back into the car and snuggled up together anyway. 

“What did I tell you?” Dean said smugly. “Drive-ins are awesome.” He put his arm around him, and Cas settled in to his side. 

“There’s no sound,” Castiel pointed out. “How am I supposed to know what’s happening to the panda?”

“He’s learning karate with the other animals, dude. Not that hard of a concept.”

“Still. You’re taking away from the movie experience.” Cas said, pretending to take the animated film seriously. “What if something he says is crucial to the plot? I can’t even read their lips,” he complained. 

“Cas.”

Castiel looked up at Dean, who was suddenly very close to his face. “Shut up,” he said, right before pulling Cas into a kiss.

Finally. 

They ended up stretching out in the front seat of the Impala, Dean underneath Castiel as they hungrily kissed. 

“God, fucking finally,” Dean moaned as Cas’s hands headed down south, massaging his dick through his jeans. 

“Finally? You were the one acting like we were a couple of buddies on a road trip,” Cas grunted back, pressing kissing to his neck. 

“We _are_ a couple of buddies,” Dean protested. 

“Mmm… I don’t do this to my buddies,” Castiel said, before unbuttoning Dean’s jeans and pulling his cock out. 

Castiel loved this part. Pulling someone apart, letting them let go in his hands. Sure, orgasms were good, but that wasn’t why he loved sex. He loved it because he got to see them vulnerable; open and honest. 

Dean arched into his touch as Castiel jacked him slow and languid, soaking in the pleasurous sight below him. Dean was beautiful. 

Castiel pressed a kiss to Dean’s forehead like a benediction, before kissing down his neck, lifting up his shirt and kissing across his chest and stomach, before finally swallowing him down whole. 

That was when he heard the sirens. 

***

Dean elects to use _Sam_ as his one phone call, much to Castiel’s dismay. Seriously, who calls their thirteen year old brother when they get arrested? He can hear him now, his voice echoing down the hall as he explains to his brother how they got caught. He doesn’t sound the least bit guilty, in fact, he sounds like he’s just telling another one of his stories with the guys. 

Although, Castiel does have to give him credit. At least now Sam can tell Bobby, who can transfer them the bail money, instead of Castiel gathering the courage to call his surrogate father himself. _If_ they even make bail. 

Oh god, Castiel can’t go to prison. He just can’t. 

“Heh, yeah, remember that old place? It was barely standing when we lived here. ‘M pretty sure nobody’s been inside since we moved away,” came Dean’s good-natured voice. Castiel put his face in his hands. A month ago, he was reheating hot dogs for little kids, and now he was in jail. 

He can’t even remember what state they’re in. 

“Because he’d never been to a drive-in before!” Dean laughed. “Who’s never been to a drive-in before?” He paused for a moment and then said, “Oh. I swore I took you while we were here.”

Another pause. “Yeah, she was hot. But I took you at least once, I’m pretty sure.”

Castiel chuckled to himself. He could see Sam sitting in his room in the cabin, rolling his eyes at Dean and reminding him of his past conquests. Apparently Dean had been quite the ladies man before he waltzed into Kripke and stole Cas’s heart. 

“Uh, you don’t really want to know, Sam. We were doin’ stuff,” Dean muttered, suddenly embarrassed. Cas snorted. “You know…” Dean lowered his voice. “ _Stuff_.”

Cas could just barely make out the sound of Sam laughing on the other side of the phone, echoing from down the hall. Maybe it was a good thing that Dean chose to call Sam. 

A police woman with short spiky hair approached the jail cell, keys in her hand. “You with Dean?” she asked. 

Castiel scrambled to his feet and nodded. 

She smiled. “Good. You look like you got a good head on your shoulders, despite your present condition,” she nodded to where he was standing. 

“I don’t usually break and enter into places,” Castiel admitted. 

The woman threw back her head and laughed. “No, I didn’t think so. I’m sure Dean dragged you into it.” She jerked her head towards the hall. “Come on, you’ve made bail.”

“Already?” Cas asked, as she unlocked the cell and let him out. 

She glanced over her shoulder. “Not exactly. But it’s fine. I’ll put it on his tab.”

“Excuse me?”

“John and Bobby have helped me with a lot of crap.” When Castiel frowned in confusion she explained, “They helped me take down the bastard that took my son from me.”

It wasn’t often that Bobby’s past detective work sprang up into conversation. The man himself preferred not to talk about it, he’d much rather garden or lead the kids in songs than reminisce on his days of taking down criminals. Actually, that was probably how he knew Dean’s father, now that Castiel thought about it. It was probably why he was so willing to let Sam stay at camp for free. 

The two walked down the hallway and met with Dean, who was casually standing by the pay phone chatting away, as a grumpy cop held the phone up to his ear. Dean waved awkwardly through his handcuffed hands, and perked up when he noticed the woman standing next Castiel. 

“Jody! How’s it going?”

“She’s letting us go, Dean,” Castiel said. 

“Awesome. Hey Sammy, I gotta go, Jody’s letting us off. Yeah, remember her? She used to babysit us all the time! Yeah! Okay, I’ll call you later, dude. Yeah. Bye.” He gestured for the other cop to hang up the phone and held up his wrists to be freed. 

Jody rolled her eyes and unlocked his handcuffs. “This is low even for you, Dean. Really? Breaking and entering?”

Dean shrugged. “I had to show my guy a drive-in. He’d never been to one, can you believe it?”

Jody didn’t look as impressed by Dean’s generosity as Dean did. “Yeah well, you’re lucky that I’m on shift tonight and not someone else.”

Dean winked. “Thanks, Jody.”

She leaned in closer, lowering her voice to what was clearly her Mom Voice. “You’re also lucky that you weren’t charged with public indecency, young man. I read the police report and rest assured, you could be in a lot deeper shit than you are.”

Dean face flushed to a deep red, and Castiel couldn’t help but snicker, despite being the one who got caught with a dick in his mouth. Dean clearly respected the woman that was giving him a talking-to and didn’t like the it one bit. 

“Sorry ma’am,” Dean mumbled. 

Castiel stepped up to the pair and interjected, “To be fair, it was was just as much my fault as it was his. I went along with it. I could have stopped him.”

Jody eyeballed Castiel for a moment, before smiling. “I’m sure you did, honey. But there’s not stopping Dean Winchester once he gets going, as I’m sure you already know.”

“Yeah, I do.” He slipped his hand into Dean’s.

They were talking about the man who loved him so much that he didn’t want to let go of him at the end of the summer and was now traveling around the country with him. 

Dean grinned at him dopily. 

Jody snorted. “You two, we’re going out to dinner. Then you’re staying at my place. Bobby told me about how you’re wandering around aimlessly. I better make sure you stay out of trouble while you’re in my town. Dinner, my treat.”

“Well, I’ll never say no to a free meal from a pretty lady,” Dean crowed. “Hey, where’s my car?”

“You can have it back tomorrow,” she called over her shoulder. “Come on, Castiel, I have stories about your guy here to tell.”

Castiel liked this woman.


End file.
